Bottle capper



May 8, 1923.

E. F. EDGECOMBE JR BOTTLE GAPPEH Filed Oatv 30, 1920 affornu 3Sheets-Sheet 1 lHlllllIlllll May 8, 1923. 1,4545

E. F. EDGECOMBE. JR

BOTTLE CAPPER Filed Oct. 30,1920 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 May 8, 1923. 1,454,549

E.F.EDGECOMBE,JR

BOTTLE CAPPER Filed Oct. 30; 1920 1 s Sheets-Sheet s II l Patented May8, 1923.

stares EDWARD F. EDGECOMBE, JR, or NDIA AP LIS, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR TOMEIER! GAYNOR MFGJCQ, oFINDLANAroLIs, INDIANA, A CORPORATION or INDIANA.

BOTTLE CAPPER.

Application filed October 30, 1920. Serial No. 420,618.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that "I, EDWARD F. Econoomsn, Jr., a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State ofIndiana, have invented a new and useful Bottle Clapper,- of which thefollowingis a specification. "In the operation of bottle-cappingInachines the cap is'placed upon the filled bottle by the exertion of asubstantial pressure through the medium '01": a spring, acting upon thecapping plunger, the common arrangement being one in which the cappingplunger, after association with the bottle and its cap, iscarried'beneatha springpressed plunger.

In the operation of such a device, there is unavoidably some variationin heights pf the bottles and this variation may be quite 2considerable. Under such circumstances, if

the sprin has sufficientfresistanc'e toprovide an a equate cappingpressure't'or'short bottles, theresistance is likely to be too great inthe operation of capping tall bot- 25 tles,"and considerable dificultyhas heretofore been experienced because 'ofbreakage of the tallerbottles, oran improper capping of the shorter bottles. I a

' The object of -my present invention is to provide means by whichautomatic compensation may be made for difierences in bottle heights, sothatthe-spring pressure exerted in the capping [operation will besubstantially the-same, -no matter what the height of the bottle maybe,within the range of the apparatus.

The accompanying drawings illustrate my invention. Fig. 1' is=a sideelevation in partial vertical section, of a capping machine embodying myinvention; Fig. 2 a plan in partial horizontal section; Fig. 3 adiagrammaticplan of the coacting bottle-driving whe'els which engage thenecks of'the bottlesfFig. i a vertical axial section, on an enlargedscale, of the compensating a'but-, nient "for the capping spring;'Fig.'5 a side elevation in paitial verti'cal section in a plane at rightang'les to the plane-of Fig. 4, and Figr G a sectional detail similar tFig. 4 and showing a modificatiolr 'lnthe'drawings, 10 indicates-asuitable base in which" is -journaled a vertical shaft -11 'driven bythe gear 12-meshing with a pinion 13 of'the driving "train '1 Shaft 11carries a horizontal bottle-supporting disk 15 which is surmounted by anotched wheel 16 which, in turn, is surmounted by a neckengaging disk 17v Arranged above disk 17 on shaft 11 is a capplng head 18 whichcomprises a plurality of circumferentially spaced capping plungers 19,each of which is preferably provided at its upper end with a roller 20which rides upon an annular cam 21. Each capping plunger 19 is formed atits lower end inany well-known manner to perform the capping operation.a

Shaft 11 carries a gear 22 which meshes with a gear 23 carried by ashaft24', said shaft 24 carrying a bottle-engaging notched wheel 25 whichcooperates with wheel'lG. Shaft 2 1 also carries a neck-engaging notcheddisk 26 which cooperates with the disk 17.

Meshing with gear 23 is a gear 28 which is attached to a shaft 29carrying a bottlereceiving horizontal disk 80. Suitable guides 31 arearranged in conjunction with disk 30, wheel 25 and disk-15, to {causethe bottles B to traverse a serpentine path in the usual well-knownmanner, this path coinciding in 'partwith thecircu'lar pathot c ppingplungers 19.

A cap-feeding chute 32 with associated cap controlling mechanism, whichforms no part of my present invention, issuitably arranged to delivercaps to the bottles before they reach that point in their serpentinepath which coincides with the path "of plungers l9; r i Thus 't'ar thestructure may be of standard construction, although in the'presentdrawings, this construction varies" in some details from standard. a Inprior constructions, a springpressed cam 40 has been provided tooperatein conjunction with the cam track 21, and so arranged'th'ataftera bottle'and its associated cap have been brought-into alinenrent withthe path of movement of the capping plungers 19, said plungers will bebrought'successively into engagement with said cam and be therebydepressed upon the asso- 'ciated cap and-bottle, thebacking spring 41 ofsaid plunger yielding under"the resistance of the plu'nger'19. f

In the present construction, I provide, as an abutment "for spring 41, acollar 42which is sleeved upon the stem 'etO of cam 40 and is providedwithiteznper'screws43 which engage a piston 44 mounted in a cylinder 45.Cylinder 45 communicates, through a passage 46, with a reservoir 4?which is arranged above the cylinder.

Located in passage 46 is a valve 48 which controls communication betweencylinder 45 and reservoir 47. This valve is conveniently an ordinaryrotary type having its stem projected through a packing gland 49 andprovided with an operating arm 50 to which is connected a pitman 51,said pitman being connected to a crank pin 52 carried by a shaft 53,provided with a gear 54 meshing with a gear 55, to which is connected abevel gear 56, which meshes with a gear upon the upper end of shaft 11.the arrangement being such that the valve 48 will be rocked, opened andcloseijl in timed relation with the operation of shaft ll. and thetiming being such that valve 48 closed whenever a roller of any plunger19 reaches the point X (Fig. 4) on cam 40, this point being above thelowest point of the cam by that amount which will give the maximumdesired compression of spring 41. It will, of course, be understood thatif no actual yielding of the spring is desired except as a precautionarymeasure, the valve 48 will not be closed until each plunger 19 has cometo a position where its roller 20 is contacting cam at the point Y, thispoint being a distance above the lowest point of the cam equal to theamount of stroke of plunger 19 absolutely essential to crimp the capupon the bottle. In any case, the closing of valve 48 will take placeonly when each plunger 19 has reached a definite position'in its path oftravel.

It will, therefore, be seen that when a tall bottle has been placedbeneath a plunger 19, itsroller 20 will initially contact cam 40 at anabnormally high point and, as the resistance to upward movement ofpiston 44 with the valve 48 open, is less than the resistance of the capupon the bottle, cylinder 44, and, consequently. the spring abutment 42will readily yield upwardly until valve 48 is closed, whereupon, furtherupward movement of the cylinder 44 is prevented and, consequently cam 40is in position to offer just the right amount of resistance to theplunger to cause a crimping and setting or" the cap, this crimping andsetting action being uniform, irrespective of the height of the bottle.It will, of course, be understood that cylinder and a portion ofreservoir 47, is preferably filled with a non-compressible liquid, suchas oil.

In order to prevent ejection of the oil from reservoir 47, I prefer toprotect the air vent with a splash skirt 61.

It will be understood from what has been said that by an accurateadjustment of the mechanism so that valve 48 is closed at exactly theright moment, there is no need of the abutment spring 41, except when,through accident, a bottle is presented to the capping mechanism withouta superimposed cap, because, under normal conditions, the amount ofdownward movement of the cap upon a bottle in order that it be properlyplaced, is a uniform amount, irrespective of the height of the bottlewhich is presented and, consequently, it the timing mechanism is soadjusted that the point X is just exactly the right distance above thelowermost point of the cam 40, the cap will be positioned at just themoment when the fluid, against which piston 44 is acting, becomesimmobile.

It is, however, desirable, in case of nonplacing of the cap, to preventthe splintering of the bottle and, instead ot' the yielding spring 41,the construction shown in Fig. 6 may be utilized. In that construction,the parts 4457, inclusive, are the same as in the construction shown inFig. 1. The stem 40 of cam 40, however, is connected directly to piston44. Leading from the upper end of cylinder 45 is a bypass 90 which leadsto supply chamber 47, and in this bypass, I arrange an outwardly-openingvalve seat 91, upon which is seated an outwardlyopening valve 92normally held to its seat by spring 93, the tension of which may beadjusted by the adjustable abutment 94.

In this construction, the timing mechanism operating valve'48 willoperate as previously described, and the fluid within cylinder 45 isthen backed up by a spring 93 and valve 92. If the operation of theparts is normal, there will be no yielding of the valve 92, but if, asin case of a non-placement of a cap, the non-yielding of cam 40 wouldoperate to crush the bottle, it is apparent that the initial pressuretending to this crushing, would exceed the resistance of spring 93,whereupon valve 92 would yield to permit a suflicient amount of oil topass upwardly through bypass 90 into chamber 47 this surplus flowingback through valve 48 when the timing mechanism is operated to open thevalve.

I claim as my invention:

1. A package capping machine, ing means for carrying the packagessuccessively through capping position and sup porting the samerelatively stationary, cap-engaging means, an abutment having variableopposition positions for said capengaging means, and means in timedrelationship with the package-carrying means for holding said abutmentin any of its variable positions in opposition to the cap-engagmg,means.

2. A package capping machine comprising means for carrying packages insuccession through a capping position andsupporting the same relativelystationary, capengaging means coordinated with said capcomprispingposition, a variable abutment for said cap-engaging means, a fluidcontainer associated with said abutment, and means in timed relationshipwith the package carrying means for controlling fluid flow with relationto said container.

3. A package capping machine comprising means for carrying packages insuccession to a capping position, a cap-engaging plunger, means forcarrying said cap-engaging plunger through the capping position, a camengaged by said plunger as 1t passes through the capping position, anabutment for said cam, fluid container associated with said abutment, avalve for controlling fluid flow with relation to said container, andmeans synchronized with the package-carrying means for opening andclosing said valve.

4. A package capping machine comprising means for carrying packages insuccession to a capping position, a cap engaging plunger, means forcarrying said cap-engaging plunger through the capping position, a camengaged by said plunger as it passes through the capping position, anabutment spring for said cam, a yielding abutment for said spring, afluid container associated with said yielding abutment, a valve forcontrolling fluid flow with relation to said container, and meanssynchronized with the package-carrying means for opening and means,means in timed relationship withthe package-carrying means for holdingsaid abutment in any of its variable positions in opposition to thecap-engaging means.

and a yieding abutment associated with said variable abutment to yieldunder excessive pressure acting upon the cap-engaging means.

p 6. A package capping machine comprising means for carrying thepackages successively through capping position, cap-engaging means, avariable abutment for said cap-engagingmeans, a fluid containerassociated with said abutment, an outwardlyopening valve leading fromsaid container, a yielding abutment for said valve, a passage leadingfrom the discharge side ofsaid valve to an inlet passage leading backinto the container. I

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand at Indianapolis,Indiana, this twenty-second day of October, A. D. one thousand ninehundred and twenty.

EDWARD F. EDGECOMBE. JR.

